Published online June 1, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 119 No. 6 June 2007, pp. 1255-1256 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-0724)
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Marketing Foods and Beverages: Why Licensed Commercial Characters Should Not Be Used to Sell Healthy Products to Children

Wendi Gosliner, MPH, RD
Center for Weight and Health
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720

Kristine A. Madsen, MD, MPH
Department of Pediatrics
University of California
San Francisco, CA 94118

To the Editor.—

We applaud the American Academy of Pediatrics on the policy statement Children, Adolescents, and Advertising.1 Current advertising practices certainly deserve the careful scrutiny of all who care about our nation's children, as well as our nation's future. The American Academy of Pediatrics statement presents a critical opportunity to begin to change current advertising practices.

An area that the policy statement did not address but is of equal concern is the use of licensed commercial characters to sell healthy foods and beverages to children. A 2005 Institute of Medicine report entitled Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? recommended "that licensed commercial characters [be] used only to promote foods and beverages that support healthful diets for children and youth."2 In addition, in an effort to build consensus on how to combat childhood obesity, the Federal Communications Commission recently formed a task force entitled Media and Childhood Obesity: Today and Tomorrow.3 At the California Childhood Obesity Conference in Anaheim, California, this past January, representatives from a number of the organizations participating on the Federal Communications Commission task force presented their perspectives on the ways in which media contribute to and may help solve the obesity epidemic. One theme that was echoed by all of the different voices and was particularly alarming was support for the Institute of Medicine's recommendation that licensed commercial characters should be used to sell healthy choices to children.

We know that children connect with particular characters and will follow those characters out of loyalty to them.4 However, it is important to carefully consider the potential ramifications of using characters to manipulate children to desire any particular product. Persuasion of children, whether for unhealthy or healthy ends, undermines the authority of parents to make decisions on their children's behalf and exploits children's healthy development and their positive, natural tendencies toward loyalty and belonging.

The following are some specific reasons that licensed commercial characters should not be used to sell any food or beverage products to children.

  1. There is evidence that children cannot distinguish between advertising messages and program content before the age of 8.5 The exploitation of this developmental stage cannot be justified even for the noblest of causes.
  2. Teaching children to be media literate is critical to their healthy growth and development. Using characters to encourage them to use specific health-related products sends conflicting messages.
  3. When commercial characters are placed on food packaging, we are not only using the character to sell the food, but we are using the food to sell the character. Refrigerators and pantries stocked with food stuffs, healthy or unhealthy, do not need to become billboards for television shows or movies.
  4. Parents trying to ensure their children's health should not have to make concessions to commercialization regardless of how healthy a food is deemed to be by others.
  5. Many commercial characters do not serve as universally positive role models. Using characters with negative traits to sell healthy behaviors may fix one problem but reinforce others.
  6. Some marketing has been designed to encourage children to nag their parents and "act out" if they do not get what they want.6 This is not a behavior we want to reinforce, even if the product that children desire is considered to be healthy.
  7. Finally, the decision regarding whether a particular product is healthy or unhealthy is extremely complicated. Condoning the use of characters to sell "healthy" products opens a Pandora's box in defining terms. The food industry remains a step ahead of health professionals in designing unhealthy food and beverage products to meet "health" guidelines. We must protect children from corporate interests that aim to define health and determine dietary behavior.

Educators, advocates, policy makers, corporations, and the media are working together to improve children's physical activity and dietary behaviors. These critical actions will impact the future of our nation's children. We should support children's programs that promote healthy eating and physical activity during the programming itself, including those in which characters model these behaviors. These messages should be general and universally accepted and should not promote particular products.

A campaign to educate young children about healthy choices and even to market healthy foods and beverages to parents of young children should be undertaken by health experts with the financial support of the government, foundations, and responsible corporations. This campaign should not include the use of licensed commercial characters to promote any particular food or beverage items.

Although it will be difficult to change marketing and advertising practices in our country, health professionals and advocates who work on behalf of children must be wary of the use of commercial characters to sell even healthy products to children.

By respecting our children, freeing them from commercial interests, and allowing them to grow and develop healthfully, we can reverse the current obesity epidemic and enhance the opportunity for the healthy, vibrant, and productive future that all children deserve.

REFERENCES

  1. American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Communications. Children, adolescents, and advertising [published correction appears in Pediatrics. 2007;119:424]. Pediatrics. 2006;118 :2563 –2569[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Institute of Medicine. Food Marketing to Children and Youth: Threat or Opportunity? Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2005
  3. Friday Morning Quarterback. FCC forms task force on media and childhood obesity [press release]. Available at: www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=338884. Accessed February 2, 2007
  4. Linn S. Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood. New York, NY: New Press; 2004:41–60
  5. Kunkel D. Children and television advertising. In: Singer DG, Singer JL, eds. Handbook of Children, Adolescents, and the Media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 2002
  6. Schor JB. Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. New York, NY: Scribner; 2004:61–62
PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics




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